How to accelerate sales

[Sven]

Hi everyone,

Tim's book was a breath of fresh air. As it turned out, I had allready put a lot of his ideas in motion myself. In fact, it seems that the only thing "wrong" for easiest sales is the price.

Reading the book pointed me to my standard issues. I have a tendency to be too detailed, and I am now in the process of simplifying things, both for myself and the customer.

I would love to get some feedback of you guys on how to futher improve the site according to the rules in the book.

About the product:

It is a windvane self steering system for sailboats.
It is sold in a kit, I buy standard parts and have some custom parts made
Everything can be outsourced or automated through the website




Thanks a lot!
Sven

[James Grey]

Would you be so kind to give me some pointers on how to make the product more clear?


Have a video of it “In action” on your site


~James Grey

[Sven]

Thanks James, I have them.

This is one of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihpT31XPLDU

[James Grey]

Hay – Looks good

If you don’t mind, I have a couple of suggestions:

-Have your title and other text graphics redone. They look sort of cheap and out of focus, you can find someone to do it “on the cheap” at your local community college

-Have your logo on the opening title to “brand” the video and your company

-Have a voice over explaining to people what they are looking at

-Open with someone (preferably an attractive person) explaining how your product works

-After you make your mini-infomercial put it on your website along with some good copy

-All of your copy should be on the home page, you loose customers every time they have to click a link

Watch some of the infomercials that come on at night for ideas

~James Grey

[webgal]

Actually that tag line, Practical Gear for Sensible Sailing is very good and that is from a copywriter. But you have it in a jpg! Shame on you. That won't get indexed unless it's text. If you know any .css you can set a div up there in smaller type size. The page is a bit keyword starved so organic results will be pitiful. Not once is the word sailing on the page in text. I am assuming it's important.

I can get the gist of what your product is which is good and the problem with most of the websites I see is that it isn't easy to figure out.

The video is a good addition. The magazine testimonial impressive.

You could probably use some more headlines/subhead/content that state benefits to the target audience. I'd give you an example but I'm not entirely sure what it does and what the benefit is although I see a feature list. I could use you as an example makeover and post it on my blog. So post here what the benefit (marketing strategy) is so you can create a website that will inspire conversions.

Here's a question to inspire your thinking. You say it's the "lightest". What BENEFIT does this present to the end user. Don't assume they know. Tell them how being the "lightest" resolves an issue or problem, is better than what they have or makes their life easier. Then fashion the statement around that thought.

[Sven]

Hi guys,

Thanks for these excelent comments! You have given me a lot to work on.

The website is generated from a database. From this I can generate a html version with one click for easy indexation by search engines, this is one of the rare things that google actually wants you to do.
The home page is also generated from the database. This is why the line below "expand your horizon" may seem a bit out of focus, I change it every now and then if I want to bring something else to the attention to regular visitors.

video's
I'll work on having the brand name at the start of every video.
At the moment I may have a few to many video's, I'll try to streamline and focus it a bit. I've asked my web builder about the embedded video's that were suggested in another post.
I have explanations in a few video's layed over the image in text. Do you think that voice over would help the viewer to absorb the information better than text can?

Making a video in infomercial style is a great idea. This may be a way to show the uninitiated what windvane self steering is about. I believe that at the moment most of the visitors I get allready have the need for a self steering solution. An infomercial style video may envoke the desire for this kind of thing in people that do not yet realise they feel that need. I have the rest of the winter to work on the storyboard ;-)

I guess I'm a copywriter... Practical gear for sensible sailing is my line. And you are very right in shaming me for only having it in a jpeg! I have immediatly written it in to the contact info and republished the website in html.

Mr. Vane, my first self steering system, came about because of a specific need I felt myself. I sail solo a lot and when I started making longer trips om my previous boat steering all the time quickly became a drag. Electronic tiller pilots seem to break a lot, usualy when it gets more important that they work: if the wind increases. Wind vane systems had been around for decades but none would fit my boat: I had a small boat with an outboard engine and all the other systems would mean the engine would have had to stay in the water. The system I designed has had the focus on smaller boats from the start:

Smaller boats need lighter systems as weight at the end of a boat affects its behaviour in waves
Smaller boats usually mean smaller budgets so I wanted a smaller price tag
The use of modern plastics and the self assembly concept make the system almost half the weight and price of the main competing system.
Mr. Vane is the only system that can be mounted in front and underneath an outboard engine.

Small in this case means boats up to about 12 meters or 36'

Phew, that was a lot of writing! But you have givven me a lot to think about, thanks again guys!

Sven

[James Grey]

At the moment I may have a few to many video's, I'll try to streamline and focus it a bit. I've asked my web builder about the embedded video's that were suggested in another post.


Just use YouTube or Google video – its free and even big name Internet Marketers use them. And it takes maybe 30 seconds to add to a site


I have explanations in a few video's layed over the image in text. Do you think that voice over would help the viewer to absorb the information better than text can?


You should have a voiceover to explain what they are looking at for two reasons

1 It puts you on a “personal” level with your customers, IE: you are an actual person

2 When I was watching your videos I had no idea what I was supposed to look at or what it was about. Honestly, if I was a customer I would have not watched the entire video – it was a bit boring and I couldn’t follow what you were trying to sell me

I think that a combination of text explaining the features and a voiceover wile it is “in action” would work well

And you should use a filter on the camera, the video was not crisp. If you can, try and film between 11:30 and 12:30 in the afternoon on a clear day

I forgot this: Your logo should have a representation of your product – and then after the opening have a 2 second picture of the product with text below with its name - even after going to your site and looking at your videos I still don’t really remember what your product actually looks like or what I was supposed to be looking for on your videos

Remember these two things before you make anything visual:

Your Brand! Your Product!!


An infomercial style video may envoke the desire for this kind of thing in people that do not yet realise they feel that need


Exactly!

How many people really needed an 80 dollar set of knives? Tens of millions of dollars worth of people, that’s who

And Yes...I still have my set of Ginsu’s

Some basic marketing stuff for ya (some people go to school for 8 years to learn these two lines):

-Convince them that they have a problem
-Convince them that you have the solution

~James Grey

[webgal]

I am presently trying to talk a client into having VO on a demo in addition to the Flash demo presentation. People are auditory and visual so you need to hit both. And I think you are right that your audience already has a steering solution.

I agree with the You Tube idea. But the video does need a storyboard. I've defaulted to power point for storyboards lately if that helps. It's easier to change things around and get a feel for how it will play.

Okay, the benefits are clearer now.

What's the competition doing?

[andycal]

Hi guys,

Sorry to be late to the party here, but I'd like to throw in a few ideas based on standard sales techniques.

The website seems to explain all the benefits of the product really well, but I'm still left with the thought - 'So what?'. The site doesn't tell me why I should care about these things. I'll take a few:

Servo pendulum system
This is widely regarded as the best working principle for self steering.

Don't know why this would make me buy. A far more compelling reason would be to explain why the other systems are so bad.

Light weight
With less then 8 kgs (18 lb) Mr. Vane is the lightest system ever!

Who cares? What's a couple of lbs between friends? Unless of course the last one I used was so heavy I actually lost a race...

All ball bearings
The most sensitive system, giving the best performance in light airs and on running courses.

Again, this doesn't cause me to sweat. Far more scary would be the fact that other systems mean I get crappy performance and affect my sailing.

Essentially, to get people to buy your stuff, you need to explain to them their problem, get them to agree it's a problem and then give them the solution - i.e. your stuff.

Just my tuppence!

[Sven]

Ah, the new guy has fresh views! Thanks for taking a good look. Great to have this kind of scrutiny. I'll see if I can find a way to incorporate your ideas.

I'm working on a storyboard for the video incorporating the personal touch.

The competition? They have been sitting on their a**es for the last 25 (!) years. There is one who has videos on youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5V1kABxb7a8
Not really nice to look at nor entertaining.

The other main brands advertise in magazines every month which to me seems to be the way it has "allways been done" I think that the main brands are still a bit stuck in the old days. BUT, it can be that most of their customers are too.... What is clear to me is that people that are new to the issues of self steering all start with internet searching.

My main focus is on the group that had not had access to windvane self steering because of budget or size of their boat. (weight is a big issue on the end of a small boat, price usually is too). It could be that my main competition is not the other windvane brands but electronic tiller pilots.

Sven

[James Grey]

Actually for a product like yours print advertising is probably where you should concentrate a good chunk of your marketing budget.

I mean… how many boat owners jump in front of their computers and think “I need to google “self steering”?

Probably not many, especially considering that your product is something that you have to convince people they need

That’s why print adds would work, someone that wasn’t thinking about buying a self steering product would “be forced” to think about buying one because its literally right in front of his face saying “You Need This” and then “come to our site for a free book on crewing a boat alone” (or something like that)


~James grey

[kamakiri]

Great site and interesting product. I was looking over it and the most glaring thing is that it looked terrible in Firefox. I run Ubuntu at home, and the fonts were really hard on the eyes. It reminded me of some of the weird spaced writing from old DOS games.

The order page seemed a bit hard to understand as well. I spent less than two minutes on it, and couldn't find an answer to my question. Making that a bit more intuitive, not necessarily Amazon.com style with official reviews, summary, customer reviews, author's dog trainer..., but with a short description that pops up with a mouse over possibly? Going back again, I see clicking the link for product description (view description) takes you to a completely new page. Make it less of a challenge to get the info, and get on with the order.

And lastly, does every page need to say: >> tell a friend about Mr. Vane self-steering at the very top? There again, it just feels intrusive. I, as a customer, just want to look at your stuff, quit bugging me for free referrals.

I am not a customer, and probably never will be though, so take my advice with a bit of salt and look at it as constructive criticism. None of the points I made were deal breakers if I was actually looking for something that steered my boat, but they would help the buying process.

[Sven]

Thanks for the usefull feedback!

Did the typeface make it more difficult for you to take in the info? That would be BAD! I use firefox on mac, it's very sharp there. I'll see if there are other fonts with the same feel that look nice on all platforms.

The tell a friend could do with a rethink. As we put up the website we thought that this would be the quickest way to get the word around. As it turns out it is not well used at all. Maybe it can be changed in to "Keep me posted on developements" at the bottom of the page.

The shop is a custom build. I wanted a special feature that we didn't find in standard solutions: The shop can generate the complete parts list and email it anywhere. So I can change the contents of a pack from anywhere and an order picker would get the new packing list. But still, the shop should make ordering easy...

Thanks again!

Sven

[kamakiri]

The font should be easy enough to change with a quick line of html. It was hard to follow and really did look like a screen from before they justified the space between letters. I am sure that a big part of that is the fonts that Ubuntu naturally chooses.

You can check for yourself by burning an Ubuntu CD and just running the OS off your CD drive. It is easy, takes little time, and will give you one more tool in making your site look nice to the <5% or so using this OS.

[AntonTheKhan]

Hi Sven,
I want to throw my 2 cents in here.
I have extensive sales background, more over the phone then in print but I see several problems with your website.
Im not at all familiar with sailing, so Im not going to comment on product description and so on. But remember that you see by emotionally affecting people.
So lets start.
You advertise the price too early on. This is dangerous, unless it is a product that everyone wants and everyone cares about the price. Put it off, have confidence that your website potential customers are going to read the rest of your sales pitch before inquiring about the price.
You have to ease them in it.
Start with qualifying your prospect. Ask questions like - have you ever been at sea, and blah blah blah and you needed something to steer your boat easier (obviously i dont know nothing about sailing, but the point here is to make a statement that any sailing enthusiast will agree with and sympathize). Basically identify their problem and show them that you care. Ask 2 or 3 questions tops, then share your own story. Share how you have been where they have been in terms of needing a product like yours. This will build trust. They will see that you have been in their shoes and know their needs.
This section can be a little longer, maybe a paragraph or 2. Then go into the product. List every benefit it has and tell the prospect how it will solve their problem.
After this, sum up the whole thing and move in for the kill. This is where urgency is needed. Use tactics like saying "this is a limited time offer", "only available for the next 5 kits that are left, my production costs are going up after this", etc., etc. Maybe even lower thge price a little, get sales then bring it back to the old price. Then try this same method again in couple of weeks.
This is it. Hope it helps.

[kamakiri]

I don't think that the urgency is needed at all with this product. It is not at all like an exercise e-book or the majority of things sold online. No hard sell is necessary at all, and I think that would tend to turn off more boaters than anything.

The product has very few competitors, at least a google of yacht steering didn't come up with much that looked like your product. Basically anyone going to your site looking for that specific product is going to be an easy sell if they see a perceived value in it.

In a product that you trust your 6 figure boat to, the last thing you want is to give the image of a 'fly by night' organization. 'Get these last five at the low low price of $xxx' tag lines do not inspire confidence. You want customers to know you will be there when they refer a friend to you, or when your product breaks, or any time they need questions answered.

Cut out the usual net Ron Popiel hype. It is not necessary.

BTW Yacht steering had no google ads come up when I searched for it. People need to be able to find you to buy your products. Are you using google adwords?

[AntonTheKhan]

Come to think of it, you are probably right. Sailing seems like something that more Upper Class wealthy people would do. Maybe not, Im really not familiar with it. I also have the feeling, that he probably would be better off finding a distributor who he can license the product to and then receive commission off of sales.